Those Northern Witches
by Animus Wyrmis
Summary: And the lesson of it all is, your Highness," said the oldest Dwarf, "that those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it." Edmund and Susan journey northward and encounter a hag.


In the far north of Narnia, there are lands where the snow has not melted for thousands of years and the White Witch's rule was felt in the long gathering of her armies rather than the changing climate. It is here that the snows blow sideways more often than not, and the dwarfs cut through the ice or skate on top of it.

It is here that Queen Susan has come, and King Edmund with her. They came in a sleigh painted red and gold, and they came wrapped in furs and leaning against each other when the wind blew. It is the first time that any of the four rulers have journeyed so far from the sea, so close to the wild north and its demons, where the people are quiet and reserved: a people who have learned the hard way that no dynasty lasts forever and that great power is always held by exercising great power.

"It is _cold_, isn't it?" Susan says to her brother, and he wraps an arm around her shoulders.

oOo

They spend the night in a drafty castle long abandoned by humans and now held by the chief of the dwarfs who resisted the White Witch. The beds are only just long enough for the two humans, and Susan has to ask a dryad woman to share hers; she cannot stop shaking otherwise. In the morning she has to break the ice on her water pitcher before she can wash her face, and the cold shocks her awake and starts the shivering all over again. She takes more care than usual in dressing that first morning, because her demeanor must say _queen_ and _ruler _without whispering _Jadis_; she must look old enough to lead a country; she must look like she understands what she is doing. In the end, she takes a high-necked burgundy gown and a simple green one to her brother, and he looks up from the papers scattered across his bed to say, "You always look aloof in green, Su. Save it for a prince."

Susan laughs, even though he is not quite joking, and wears the burgundy gown to discussions about the security of the northern border. "We've been plagued by werewolves of late," says Doggin, the chief dwarf. "We've had to lock the children inside and go about in groups ourselves. And the women say there is a hag in the forest. Perhaps Your Majesties…?"

Edmund looks to Susan's nod before he answers, "The High King can send forces to sniff them out. We have Wolves and Dogs on our side."

Doggin admits that they would be of help, and the dwarfs and dwarf women who served as his councilors agree. "And perhaps then we will be able to make the trade road safe again," one of them says

"Consider it done," Susan tells them, thinking of the knowledge the northerners have that they lack, knowledge of magic and witchcraft and how to tell one from the other and use the first against the second, and she smoothes out the creases where her fingers clench around her gown.

(In England, she will try on the yellow dress and then the red and then the green, and then turn to her brother and say _Does the green make me look aloof?_ as if she has forgotten the answer.

_Yes, _Edmund will tell her, and Susan will smile and say _That's all right then_. And she will pull on her nylons and apply her lipstick with her eyes half shut, and Edmund will whisper _Is it worth what you have lost, _but only when she has gone.)

oOo

They see the surrounding land on skis and ice skates, and Edmund throws snowballs at her until she is afraid the dwarfs have lost all respect for them. But they laugh at their king and queen, and when Ed whispers, "Do you think I was too childish?" she is able to shake her head and tell him he did fine.

"You _are_ still childish," she adds, because she knows it will make him laugh and toss another snowball at her. It is as close as she can get to asking the questions she wants to ask: _Is the winter all right? Would it be easier on you if we didn't go about in the sleigh? _It is as close as she can get to saying _It wasn't your fault for being enchanted, we understood, you don't have to feel guilty anymore._

"At least no one wants to marry me," he retorts, and tackles her into a snow bank.

oOo

When they have been there for a week they meet the hag. Her face is ugly and twisted, but her eyes sparkle and her voice is smooth. "And why have a king and queen come to my poor cave?" she demands. "Looking for spells? Shall I give you something hot to drink?"

Next to her, Edmund stiffens. "You are trespassing in Narnia," he says, in a voice so hard it frightens Susan. "Renounce your magic or flee our domain. If we see you here again your life is forfeit."

"Your Majesty is very cruel to make such a demand of a poor old woman," the hag complains, but she packs up her parcels as they watch and begins to trudge northward. Susan considers following her, but they are a small party and mostly strangers here, and Edmund is shaking beside her.

"Come," she says instead. "Let us start back before Doggin begins to worry."

Edmund follows her, and the rest of the party follows him, and they ski slowly back. There is mulled wine waiting, and then supper, and Susan doesn't get a chance to talk to Edmund again until late that night. "What happened?" she asks, reaching for his hand and then letting go again. "You've met hags before."

"Her eyes," Edmund says shortly. "Something in her eyes."

"The White Witch is dead," Susan whispers. "Aslan killed her."

Edmund nods; neither of them adds that the White Witch killed Aslan, too.

oOo

She stays in her brother's bed that night and watches him sleep. Edmund has never been a quiet sleeper, but tonight he tosses and turns more than usual, and Susan has to retreat to a chair before she is pushed out of the bed entirely.

"But I don't even know the way back to my own country," Edmund mumbles in his sleep; his face is twisted in pain, and Susan's heart breaks for him.

"Ed," she whispers, "Ed, wake up."

"Mmph," he mutters, and then rolls over and looks at her. "What time is it?"

"Late," she says. "Was—you were dreaming."

He nods. Susan opens her mouth to say something, anything, but then closes it again and turns away. If she were Lucy, she thinks, she could get Edmund to _listen _to her about this, or at least he would hear it from Lucy (it is not the same thing, but Susan hopes that if Edmund hears that he is blameless enough times he will begin to listen to it.

"It's the cold," Edmund says after a moment. "It just—I always dream louder when it's cold."

"She used you," Susan says desperately. "You didn't want to—you wouldn't have—she enchanted you."

"Then how can I be sure she won't do it again?" He sits up and drops his head into his hands. "Susan, either she was powerful enough to overpower me with a drink and a smile or I was just that beastly, but either way, how can any of you trust me again?"

"Oh, Edmund," she whispers, and crosses the room to hug him tightly. "We'll always trust you because you're our brother," she adds. It falls flat, but Susan has nothing better to add. His shoulders shake and his hands clench around her nightgown, and she thinks dully that if this hag is truly Jadis, her brother is done for.

oOo

In the morning Susan begs off breakfast for archery practice, and when one of her arrows goes wide she follows after it without complaint and without an escort. The hag, as she expected, is back in her cave; she looks up when Susan approaches and laughs. "Greetings, my pretty little queen," she calls.

"My brother told you to leave," Susan tells her.

"If you had come to chase me away," the hag remarks, "you would have come with soldiers. But what can a poor defenseless old woman do?"

"I don't know," Susan says. "What can you do?"

"I can give you love spells," the hag says. "I can make you the most beautiful woman in the world, in all worlds. I can make you bewitch men with a look and a smile. I can make you powerful. I can tell your future."

"You can break the law, you mean," Susan answers. "I'm not interested."

"No?" the hag asks, and the fire between them flares up just a little bit. "I can tell you you'll never marry, try as you might. I can tell you you'll die far from here. I can tell you you'll hate your sister before your twenty-first birthday and lose your older brother before your younger one, and I can tell you that the Faun you rely on for advice and gossip is in the pay of the Tisroc."

Susan flinches as if struck, and her fingers feel for her bow. "You _lie_," she says fiercely around a tightening in her throat as she pulls an arrow from her quiver. "You lie and you ought to have left when you had the chance."

The hag dies quickly, without saying a word, but the fire leaps and dances as she draws her final labored breath. In the flames, Susan sees herself dancing with Edmund, laughing with her sister, at the breakfast table with Peter. She sees herself alone on a ship, talking with a tall stranger, standing in a grassy ruin. The flame-Susan twists and turns and grows taller and brighter until she is as big as Susan herself, wearing strange ugly clothing and staring at Susan in bemusement, but there is no recognition in her eyes.

"You are no true vision if you cannot recognize yourself," Susan chides her, and douses the fire. She closes the hag's eyes and leaves the cave as she found it.

(Someday, she will look up from her piano to see a young girl with a raised bow and outlandish clothing standing in her living room. The girl will move her mouth soundlessly, and when Susan blinks she will be gone.)

oOo

The north is cold and the roads are treacherous, and when they finally leave they are wrapped into their sleigh with furs and blankets. The dwarfs watch them go from inside doorways, where the wind is slightly lessened, and King Edmund and Queen Susan wave goodbye until they are out of sight.

"It is good we came," Edmund says finally, and when Susan shivers he holds her close.

"Yes," Susan agrees, and neither of them mentions the dead hag, shot with Susan's arrows, or the lingering feeling that it will not matter how many werewolves and hags they stamp out if some of them keep coming back.

Their sleigh bells jingle in the wind, even when they have stopped, and Susan resolves to remove Darvus the Faun from her inner circle as she falls asleep against Edmund's shoulder to the stamp-stamp of the reindeer's hooves and the music of the bells.

In the cold, dark cave, the fire sparks and the dead hag smiles.

OOOOOOOO

Notes: Written originally for the Narnia Exchange over on livejournal, for this prompt:

_What I want: Edmund and Susan relying on each other however you interpret it (incest between the lines a plus, but not necessary)_

_Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: fight, red, wind, silk. You don't have to use all these words in the fic, just as a thematic jumping-off point.  
_

_What I definitely don't want in my fic: sanctimonious Lucy, Susan/Caspian in OTP form even if it's angsty_

Edited by Zempasuchil on livejournal and by Ill Ame. Obviously, the character's are Lewis's, and Edmund's line in his dream is from LWW; the quote in the summary is from SC.

Feedback always appreciated!


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